Business Texting for Auto Dealerships

Everything’s easier when you have your customer’s attention. In the auto industry, dealerships are always looking for a practical solution to better connect with prospective and current customers.

In fact, the ability to reach customers quickly and get a fast response doesn’t just streamline communication for auto dealerships – it improves internal productivity, provides more accurate scheduling and increases revenue by not only driving more traffic but also closing deals faster.

Instead of trading voicemails and sending marketing emails that may get swept up in spam filters, texting from the dealership’s existing phone number connects with customers in a timely manner.

On average, texts are read within 5 seconds of being received, according to SlickText. By targeting customers where they prefer to communicate, service departments are replacing phone tag and turnaround delays with quick approvals for additional work while their sales floor is getting real-time updates on the pulse of their potential buyer.

4 Ways Business Texting for Dealerships Saves You Time & Money:

Expect an improved customer service index by staying in front of the customer experience. Textel’s scheduled texting tool makes it simple to schedule automated appointment reminders and service follow-ups.

Text your customers a picture of their vehicle to expedite the approval process. Customers are 7 times more likely to text back after receiving a text than call back after receiving a voicemail.

Thanks to a user-friendly portal from Textel, dealerships don’t need to worry about missing a text thanks to a desktop inbox view that provides notifications to their support team. For the on-the-go service team, a free cell phone app is also available to make communication simple yet effective.

To help navigate bigger auto dealerships, Textel’s management controls give teams the ability to oversee and manage all conversations from their computer and assign permissions to each user as needed. To improve customer experience continuity, conversations are time stamped and can be saved to a PDF file or printed for your records.

When Textel was approached by the Service Director at Suntrup Ford in St. Louis, MO, they recognized the issue right away. Service advisors were spending too much time following up with customers and not getting approvals efficiently. This would skew the service schedule and affect additional customers’ experience.

At the end of the day, customers don’t want their car being taken off the line due to a missed call or email. Additionally, they want to see the issue at hand via a photo to understand why the extra work is needed.

After implementing Textel’s business texting solution and using this new channel to connect with customers, Suntrup Ford felt immediate results.

“The Customer Service Index (CSI) at Suntrup’s service departments has increased by 40 points on average!”
– Elliot Slik, Service Director, Sunset Ford, St. Louis, MO.

The Service Department is now able to reach customers quickly and easily and can even schedule texts as needed to remind customers about oil changes or other important, upcoming service needs. Suntrup even sends gifs via text to customers to thank them for their service, which has produced an overwhelmingly positive result.

After more than half a century of servicing and selling cars in the St. Louis area, Suntrup is just one of many dealerships looking for innovative, practical ways to connect with their customers and improve their bottom line.

See what a texting solution from Textel will do for your auto dealership with a risk-free, 14-day free trial. As Suntrup’s Elliot Slik noted, “Nothing is better than a personal note via text message to make a customer happy.”